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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26828740">Together</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewTimelineNewMe/pseuds/NewTimelineNewMe'>NewTimelineNewMe</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Wolf 359 (Radio)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Day Four: Running Out Of Time, Emotional Whump, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Presumed Dead, Whumptober</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:15:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>429</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26828740</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewTimelineNewMe/pseuds/NewTimelineNewMe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a week left until Renée was leaving for space.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Renée Minkowski/Dominik Koudelka</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950760</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Together</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There was a week left until Renée was leaving for space. Mr. Cutter had been very clear, and she couldn’t have protested either way. </p><p>...Dominik was still mad at her. Maybe mad wasn’t the perfect word, but he wasn’t happy, not in the slightest. But this opportunity- it was unlike anything she had even hoped for. Renée has dreamed her whole life to go to space, and now that this had come up, she couldn’t find it in herself to refuse. </p><p>Renée has told Dominik that she didn’t get to call him, she wanted to, but she would have lost the opportunity. He didn’t find this fair, not at all, but even then he couldn’t bring himself to be mad. She had always wanted to touch the stars.</p><p>He tried to be happy for her on her last day on Earth.</p><p>When he walked into their house after leaving the airport, he found it was quiet. Too quiet. </p><p>He turned on the TV. </p><p>A week later, he had gotten somewhat used to it, but it still felt strange, waking up to a bed that seemed too empty, without Renée’s cold feet snaking up his leg. </p><p>A month later he had stopped turning on the TV, and had thrown himself into his work. Just twenty three more.</p><p>The countdown reached a year and three months when Dominik got the news, a cold snake of dread working its way through his body, the words “Shuttle Explosion” burned through his eyelids. He felt sick, and called into work as such, the world spinning around him. </p><p>He shouldn’t have let her gone, and yet even as he thought this he knew he would have never been able to prevent her from going, for both reasons of him not wanting to stop her and Renée being the stubborn asshole she was.</p><p>Dominik turns on the TV that night, for the first time in a while.</p><p>It was hard to wake up and not feel the warm presence of his wife next to him, and now it was even harder, knowing that it wasn’t even a possibility at this point. </p><p>They give him hush money, and he wants to burn it. Instead, he locks it in a bank account and tries to forget the code.</p><p>The countdown, now useless, ticks down to zero. Renée would have been home today. She always loved the stars, and that night was extremely clear. He’d like to think it was a gift from her.</p><p>He hopes she can see all the stars she wants now, wherever that may be.</p>
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